Each grade donated items for the food drive.
Seven Arrow kindergarten students challenged all grades, in this K-6 private school, to make food donations.
The school collected 17,637 items, which is nearly 115 items of food per student. On Friday, November 18, the items were loaded and taken to the Westside Food Bank, located at 1710 22nd Street, Santa Monica.
School Admission’s director Victoria Lerner said, “It is the season of giving and nothing shows our community’s philanthropic nature more than our Kindergarten Food Drive.
“Our Kinders have huge hearts and high expectations, so this is no ordinary ‘clean out your pantry’ food drive,” Lerner said.
Several years ago, the youngest students in this school (located on La Cruz and on Haverford) came up with the idea to help supply food for those who were in need: they didn’t want to see people go without food on Thanksgiving.
Then, kindergarten students, with help from the staff, went one step further: they challenged the school’s older students to a week-long “food challenge.”
Each day of the week was designated for certain food items that the Westside Food Bank had requested as essential items, from canned pasta sauce and pasta, to juice, cereal and stuffing.
This year the sixth-grade class donated the most food and were declared the winner. “We would like to them for their particularly remarkable generosity,” Lerner said.
Last year, Brenda Cowdry, director of operations at Aldersgate told Circling the News, “It’s what we should do to take care of our neighbors. It fills you with happiness when you give.”
“Thank you thank you to everyone who contributed,” Lerner said. “The Westside Food Bank is not only grateful for our donations, but also for the quality of our donations. Many of the people served at the food bank are families with small children.
“They are so grateful for the brand-new, name-brand products we consistently donate,” Lerner said. “A good portion of our food has already been distributed to needy individuals and families.”
Visit: wsfb.org
Food was loaded up on Friday and taken to the Westside Food Bank.